Tots refusing to brush their teeth? Teenagers ignoring your texts? Siblings squabbling – again? Readers and experts share their tried and tested fixes to parenting nightmares
Smart speakers are a great parenting crutch, whether it be for setting a timer (kids seem to be weirdly obedient to them) or asking Alexa for homework help when the kids put you on the spot. But reader Katie Matthews has hacked the parenting matrix. “I used to have to nag repeatedly to get the kids out of the house,” she says. “Now our Google speaker announces a five-minute warning before we need to leave. They know they have to do their last bits of faffing when they hear that warning. Then the speaker announces, ‘Shoes on, let’s go!’ when it’s time to leave. It really has transformed our mornings.”
Getting your child to endure the torture of eating the food that has been lovingly prepared for them can be painful. But this sweet tip comes tried and tested from author Holly Bourne: “Making my daughter ‘ice-cream’ for breakfast – with blended avocado, banana, strawberries and full-fat Greek yoghurt – has been a gamechanger. It’s important not to ‘trick’ kids into eating healthy food, so she helps us make it and sees what goes into the blender, but doesn’t seem to mind if it’s becoming ice-cream.”
